Mike and I are visiting his family in Chicago for 3 weeks and during our first weekend, we spent a few nights in Wicker Park/Bucktown with one of Mike’s best friends from college (his best man actually). We don’t get to see them very often and he just happened to be in Chicago taking his medical boards. I tried out Airbnb for the first time, which is this site where you can rent rooms/apts from people. Kind of like vacation rental by owner but with a much better site and you can pay with your credit card directly on the site. We had trouble finding a place through Craigslist (beware of apartment rental scams asking for payment by bank transfer!) and really wanted to find a place with a common area to hang out versus two hotel rooms (which would have been super expensive anyway). So Airbnb is definitely a great option if you’re looking for a place for at least 4 people. We found a great apt in the heart of Wicker Park so we could walk to great restaurants and shops. It’s my favorite neighborhood in Chicago.

We happened to be there the weekend of Wicker Park Fest so on Saturday we just walked around the neighborhood and checked out all the street vendors. I love street fairs! It was insanely hot but in the evening it was really nice. At night it got really crowded but when we walked around during the day it was relatively empty. There were some neat “live art” exhibitions going on.

Live Art Exhibition

This one was a clown trying to get out of his bubble and the woman next to him was cleaning and sweeping the floor of her bubble. All I kept thinking was how hot it must have been in their bubble that was sealed up! There’s a great graffiti mural down Milwaukee Ave–I love the contrast between the bold colors and darkness of the skyline.

Beautiful Mural

Absolutely stunning.

We also went to historic Wrigley Field to catch a Cubs game. They played the St. Louis Cardinals that day and there were so many Card fans in the stadium. By the volume of their cheering you would have thought it was a home game for them! We got the tickets on Stubhub and they were definitely way more expensive than the Angels game we caught in LA. $90 versus $15! Really the cheapest tickets we could have gotten for the Cubs game were in the $40 range but we wanted some decent seats. Was a good time and a great game even though Cubs lost 6-9.

Go Cubbies!

Going back to Wrigleyville definitely brought back memories of going to Cubs games at Kellogg. I think I’ve been to most of the bars in Wrigleyville–some good memories there and makes me feel old now! 😉

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About Me

I love finding the magic in the everyday--it's those little moments that make you smile.

In early 2012, I went on a 4 month trip around Asia with my husband, and here's where we shared our stories and photos! Now we are now living as expats in Nairobi, Kenya (with 2 months in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania first) and will continue to share our adventures here.